Hello readers, I forgot to add a note last chapter... what I meant to say was thank you to Hasso and Hannah for your reviews. And then just an hour or two ago, Rune also reviewed my story. Thank you thank you thank you, it means the world to me.(beaming) Yes, anywho, this is the chapter where the plot... well, at least the main point, is revealed. The first two chapters were just a transition between the show to get you in the mood and stuff. Enough of my babbling, enjoy!
Kagome squirmed desperately beneath Kikyo's white hands. Wide brown eyes expanded and contracted with the shallow rise and fall of her starving lungs.
"K-Kikyo..." she gasped.
Without loosening her hold, Kikyo leaned in towards Kagome's lips. "Don't call for me, Kagome. Call for Inuyasha. See if he comes."
Silver tears leaked from the dying girl's overflowing eyes. White lips opened and closed a few times, but all that came out were painful squeaks. And it was too late anyway. After a shoulder spasm, her body's last ditch effort, the reincarnation's eyes rolled up into her head. The jaw went slack. Kikyo smiled, relaxing her own tense shoulders. Kagome was dead.
But then Kikyo was gasping for air of her own. Two strong clawed hands were around her throat from behind. Inuyasha had come after all.
"KAGOME!" He screamed hysterically. "No, no, KAGOME!" With every word, his hands tightened. Kikyo doubted he even realized what he was doing. He had just needed something to break and her neck was the first available thing.
On her hands and knees, Kikyo sobbed like her mirror image had done just seconds ago.
"Inu.. yasha," she begged. "It's... not..." Any other words were choked off as she was lifted off the ground and thrown against the far wall. After one initial yelp of pain, she slid silently into a placid pool of limbs next to Kagome's limp body. Through watering eyes, she looked up to meet the raging grief of Inuyasha's face. The hatred there told Kikyo he was in his right mind now; he knew exactly what was going.
After three distracted tugs, Tetsuiga was drawn from its sheath. For a moment, Kikyo wondered if it were going to transform. Rumor had it that the sword only transformed when Inuyasha was trying to protect a human. But in this case, the human was already dead.
Inuyasha evidently thought that the sword was enough to finish off a weak body such as hers even in its thin, rusted state. With a terrible cry, he launched himself and the weapon straight at her heart. Kikyo had just enough time to wonder if her cried this way for her when she died when-
Kikyo woke up screaming. Shaking, she grabbed at her chest to protect herself. But the most dangerous thing in her immediate surroundings was a mosquito. It had been a dream. It was always a dream.
Sobbing quietly, hoping she had not alerted some demon to her presence, she pulled herself into a ball. Eyes darted frantically from tree to tree and she pulled the blanket only to her nose so she could continue her paranoid lookout. Later, she would mentally kick herself for being so frightened from only a dream as she always did, but for now, no one was around to witness how pathetic she was being... and acting like a child was the only thing she wanted to do right now.
"It was just a dream, just a dream..." But try as she might, she just couldn't get past both her self-loathing, and her fear of Inuyasha's retribution. She just couldn't believe that-
"She tried to kill Kagome!" Inuyasha snarled, using his lethal claws to reduce an innocent, by-standing tree to a sad pile of splinters. Miroku and Sango stood nearby, watching the violence with quiet contemplation. Sure, they both agreed that Inuyasha had every right to take out his anger on something, even a poor tree… but they really were just glad he wasn't taken it out on them. Well, Shippou had a few sore looking bumps on his head, but that was what he got for cheek during one of Inuyasha's rampages.
Miroku, strangely enough, was the first one to get brave. "You know… Inuyasha…" Miroku's words dried up in his throat under Inuyasha's cold glare.
"Don't bother telling me that she did save Kagome's life," the half-demon hissed. "I was there, so were you, we both saw the knife in Kikyo's hand." At this, emotionally spent, he slid to the ground, wearily pulling his legs into a crossed position. "Kagome…" The others caught only a glimpse of a watery blur in golden eyes before they were hidden behind clawed fingers. Sango shifted uncomfortably, unused to this soft side to the toughest member of their little gang. She wondered briefly if this was the rare side Kagome had fallen in love with. Miroku however, being a man as well, somewhat understood what Inuyasha was going through. If anything happened to Sango… unconsciously, he shook his head to clear the morbid thoughts. However, he realized Inuyasha was having an even tougher time because the attempted murder had been the plan of another woman he had once loved…
The monk lowered himself to his knees, laying a gentle hand on his friend's shoulder. "But Inuyasha, whatever ointment Kikyo applied worked. And the stitches… they were neat, tidy." His eyes glazed over in thought. "I doubt there will even be much of a scar when the wound heals…" He sighed. "It'd be such a pity if there was… she has such a beautiful abdomen…"
Inuyasha peeked over his fingers in horror, forgetting the tear trails running down his face. "Don't tell me you were gazing at her when you were examining her earlier!"
Miroku donned a peaceful expression and placed a hand to his heart (as if anyone believed that's what he thought with…). "Far be it from me," he said scholarly, "to ignore such a lovely creature's charms when laid out before me-" He was rewarded with a fist in the mouth for the troubles of his speech.
Sango, very red in the face, walked over and sat on the opposite side of Inuyasha, far away from her perverted boyfriend. "What the moron is trying to say," she began, making sure her glare at Miroku was not unnoticed, "is that before we blindly hunt down and kill Kikyo, maybe we should ask her what she was doing?"
Inuyasha sighed, pulling his knees to his chin. His sad gaze rested on Kagome's sleeping form lying just a few strides away. She was alive, and it looked like it was going to stay that way… but Inuyasha knew something had to be done about Kikyo. For too long her memory had stood between him and the girl he truly loved. And now her clay form was making even more trouble, sometimes siding with evil, sometimes seeming to help good. Her loyalties were unstable, and this made her dangerous.
He stood suddenly, going to Kagome's side to stroke her hair.
"I've made my decision," he said quietly. "I don't trust Kikyo. Forget the Jewel for now; with Kagome unconscious, it's useless anyway. For now, our hunt is for Kikyo." He turned and lifted swollen eyes to meet his friends'. "And make no mistake, this time, I will-"
"-kill her myself!" Naraku snarled, throwing a vase at a far wall and watching the pieces fall with satisfaction.
Kagura also watched the vase crumble, but her satisfaction was based on Naraku's rage. The priestess had really screwed up this time, and Naraku was done with her. Inuyasha would never allow Kikyo to get close enough to steal the shards now that she had tried to kill his girlfriend. Kagura smirked. Jealousy, the human emotion that resulted in the stupidest (and therefore most amusing) actions. And reactions too, she mused, regarding Naraku's twisted face thoughtfully. Then Kagura smirked. This was her chance to get close to Naraku, to fool him into thinking she cared… and could be trusted. This would be an illusion of course, but only she needed to know that.
"Naraku," she purred, kneeling beside her master dutifully. She ignored the look he gave her. If she had paid attention, she would have choked on her own fear.
"She has failed you for the last time, Master, we must let her go." She even took the liberty of stroking Naraku's curly black hair. "We will find another way to get the shards. Use the reincarnation she tried to kill perhaps? Inuyasha has already proven how foolish he can be when it comes to that girl." When Naraku did not respond, Kagura frowned impatiently. "Come now Master, surely you can see that that incompetent whore of a priestess-"
Kagura hit the opposite wall, a full eight feet away from her original position before she even realized she'd been struck. She raised a shaking hand to her stinging cheek, already swelling, as she slid to the floor in shock.
Naraku was on his feet, chest heaving, and eyes a darker maroon than Kagura had ever seen before. Hate radiated off his tense body. What the hell did I do! Kagura screamed at herself, thinking she was about to be decapitated by his bare hands.
But the moment passed. A few minutes later, Kagura remembered how to breathe again. Shallowly.
Naraku sat, facing her but not meeting her eyes. "Perhaps you are right," he mused. "It would seem Kagome would be the rational choice to use against Inuyasha."
Kagura stared in disbelief. He liked her idea! So, that was his version of a happy reaction! Oh gods controlling all things evil, she prayed. Let me never spout off some dumb plan!
Naraku poured some tea and sipped it, apparently forgetting the last few minutes. "This will succeed," he vowed solemnly, more to himself than to Kagura. He raised his eyes, back to their normal color, to Kagura's twitching ones. "Kagome's world… the future… it will be mine."